1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus to which ink is supplied from a replaceable ink cartridge for printing on a recording medium, ejecting an ink droplet from nozzle apertures and an ink cartridge suitable for the above printing apparatus.
2. Conventional Art
An ink-jet printing apparatus is known in which there is provided with a print head for supplying a driving signal to a piezoelectric vibrator or heating means to print data, pressurizing ink by energy generated by the piezoelectric vibrator or the heating means and thereby ejecting ink droplets from nozzle apertures and an ink cartridge housing ink for supplying ink to the above print head.
As the print quality depends upon the resolution of the print head and greatly depends upon the viscosity of ink, the degree of bleeding on a recording medium or the like, the characteristics of ink are improved to enhance the print quality. Even if the same ink is used, a driving method of a print head suitable for the characteristics of ink is improved to enhance the print quality. Further, a maintenance condition such as the cycle of no-medium-ejection or forced ejection in a capping state is improved to prevent the nozzle apertures from clogging.
As described above, the print quality of a printing apparatus can be enhanced when the ink characteristics and the driving method for a print head work together, not only by the ink characteristics. Although a result by such technical development can be applied to a newly manufactured ink-jet printing apparatus, the application to a printing apparatus already shipped from a manufacturer would be practically impossible when talking into consideration the cost, labor and others. This is because that the printing apparatus has to be carried to the manufacturer and storing means in which control data is recorded must be exchanged.
To cope with such a problem, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2594912 for example, there has been proposed a printing apparatus in which semiconductor storage means and an electrode connecting to the storage means are arranged on an ink cartridge, a group of electrodes is also arranged on the body of the printing apparatus, data stored in the semiconductor storage means is read, and recording operation is controlled in accordance with the data.
However, there is a problem that contact with the semiconductor storage means is failed because of rough operation for attaching or detaching an ink cartridge by a user or play between a carriage and an ink cartridge, the reading of data is disabled because of electrification or the application of a signal at unsuitable timing and, in the worst case, data is lost and recording operation is disabled.
The present invention is made in view of such a problem and an object of which is to provide an ink-jet printing apparatus wherein data stored in semiconductor storage means can be prevented from being lost independent of unsuitable operation for attaching or detaching an ink cartridge.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an ink cartridge suitable for the above printing apparatus.